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	<h1 id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading">X264 Settings</h1>
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<td> <table id="toc" class="toc"><tbody><tr><td><div id="toctitle"><h2>Contents</h2> <span class="toctoggle">[<a id="togglelink" class="internal" href="javascript:toggleToc()">hide</a>]</span></div>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#x264_Settings"><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">x264 Settings</span></a>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-2"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#Help"><span class="tocnumber">1.1</span> <span class="toctext">Help</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-3"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#Input"><span class="tocnumber">1.2</span> <span class="toctext">Input</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#Presets"><span class="tocnumber">1.3</span> <span class="toctext">Presets</span></a>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-5"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#profile"><span class="tocnumber">1.3.1</span> <span class="toctext">profile</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-6"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#preset"><span class="tocnumber">1.3.2</span> <span class="toctext">preset</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-7"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#tune"><span class="tocnumber">1.3.3</span> <span class="toctext">tune</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-8"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#slow-firstpass"><span class="tocnumber">1.3.4</span> <span class="toctext">slow-firstpass</span></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-9"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#Frame-type_options"><span class="tocnumber">1.4</span> <span class="toctext">Frame-type options</span></a>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-10"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#keyint"><span class="tocnumber">1.4.1</span> <span class="toctext">keyint</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-11"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#min-keyint"><span class="tocnumber">1.4.2</span> <span class="toctext">min-keyint</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-12"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#no-scenecut"><span class="tocnumber">1.4.3</span> <span class="toctext">no-scenecut</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-13"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#scenecut"><span class="tocnumber">1.4.4</span> <span class="toctext">scenecut</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-14"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#intra-refresh"><span class="tocnumber">1.4.5</span> <span class="toctext">intra-refresh</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-15"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#bframes"><span class="tocnumber">1.4.6</span> <span class="toctext">bframes</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-16"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#b-adapt"><span class="tocnumber">1.4.7</span> <span class="toctext">b-adapt</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-17"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#b-bias"><span class="tocnumber">1.4.8</span> <span class="toctext">b-bias</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-18"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#b-pyramid"><span class="tocnumber">1.4.9</span> <span class="toctext">b-pyramid</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-19"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#open-gop"><span class="tocnumber">1.4.10</span> <span class="toctext">open-gop</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-20"><a href="./X264 Settings - MeWiki_files/X264 Settings - MeWiki.htm"><span class="tocnumber">1.4.11</span> <span class="toctext">no-cabac</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-21"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#ref"><span class="tocnumber">1.4.12</span> <span class="toctext">ref</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-22"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#no-deblock"><span class="tocnumber">1.4.13</span> <span class="toctext">no-deblock</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-23"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#deblock"><span class="tocnumber">1.4.14</span> <span class="toctext">deblock</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-24"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#slices"><span class="tocnumber">1.4.15</span> <span class="toctext">slices</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-25"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#slice-max-size"><span class="tocnumber">1.4.16</span> <span class="toctext">slice-max-size</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-26"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#slice-max-mbs"><span class="tocnumber">1.4.17</span> <span class="toctext">slice-max-mbs</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-27"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#tff"><span class="tocnumber">1.4.18</span> <span class="toctext">tff</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-28"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#bff"><span class="tocnumber">1.4.19</span> <span class="toctext">bff</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-29"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#no-interlaced"><span class="tocnumber">1.4.20</span> <span class="toctext">no-interlaced</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-30"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#constrained-intra"><span class="tocnumber">1.4.21</span> <span class="toctext">constrained-intra</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-31"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#pulldown"><span class="tocnumber">1.4.22</span> <span class="toctext">pulldown</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-32"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#fake-interlaced"><span class="tocnumber">1.4.23</span> <span class="toctext">fake-interlaced</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-33"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#frame-packing"><span class="tocnumber">1.4.24</span> <span class="toctext">frame-packing</span></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-34"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#Ratecontrol"><span class="tocnumber">1.5</span> <span class="toctext">Ratecontrol</span></a>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-35"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#qp"><span class="tocnumber">1.5.1</span> <span class="toctext">qp</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-36"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#bitrate"><span class="tocnumber">1.5.2</span> <span class="toctext">bitrate</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-37"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#crf"><span class="tocnumber">1.5.3</span> <span class="toctext">crf</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-38"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#rc-lookahead"><span class="tocnumber">1.5.4</span> <span class="toctext">rc-lookahead</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-39"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#vbv-maxrate"><span class="tocnumber">1.5.5</span> <span class="toctext">vbv-maxrate</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-40"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#vbv-bufsize"><span class="tocnumber">1.5.6</span> <span class="toctext">vbv-bufsize</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-41"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#vbv-init"><span class="tocnumber">1.5.7</span> <span class="toctext">vbv-init</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-42"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#crf-max"><span class="tocnumber">1.5.8</span> <span class="toctext">crf-max</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-43"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#qpmin"><span class="tocnumber">1.5.9</span> <span class="toctext">qpmin</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-44"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#qpmax"><span class="tocnumber">1.5.10</span> <span class="toctext">qpmax</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-45"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#qpstep"><span class="tocnumber">1.5.11</span> <span class="toctext">qpstep</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-46"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#ratetol"><span class="tocnumber">1.5.12</span> <span class="toctext">ratetol</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-47"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#ipratio"><span class="tocnumber">1.5.13</span> <span class="toctext">ipratio</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-48"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#pbratio"><span class="tocnumber">1.5.14</span> <span class="toctext">pbratio</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-49"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#chroma-qp-offset"><span class="tocnumber">1.5.15</span> <span class="toctext">chroma-qp-offset</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-50"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#aq-mode"><span class="tocnumber">1.5.16</span> <span class="toctext">aq-mode</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-51"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#aq-strength"><span class="tocnumber">1.5.17</span> <span class="toctext">aq-strength</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-52"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#pass"><span class="tocnumber">1.5.18</span> <span class="toctext">pass</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-53"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#stats"><span class="tocnumber">1.5.19</span> <span class="toctext">stats</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-54"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#no-mbtree"><span class="tocnumber">1.5.20</span> <span class="toctext">no-mbtree</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-55"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#qcomp"><span class="tocnumber">1.5.21</span> <span class="toctext">qcomp</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-56"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#cplxblur"><span class="tocnumber">1.5.22</span> <span class="toctext">cplxblur</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-57"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#qblur"><span class="tocnumber">1.5.23</span> <span class="toctext">qblur</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-58"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#zones"><span class="tocnumber">1.5.24</span> <span class="toctext">zones</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-59"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#qpfile"><span class="tocnumber">1.5.25</span> <span class="toctext">qpfile</span></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-60"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#Analysis"><span class="tocnumber">1.6</span> <span class="toctext">Analysis</span></a>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-61"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#partitions"><span class="tocnumber">1.6.1</span> <span class="toctext">partitions</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-62"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#direct"><span class="tocnumber">1.6.2</span> <span class="toctext">direct</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-63"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#no-weightb"><span class="tocnumber">1.6.3</span> <span class="toctext">no-weightb</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-64"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#weightp"><span class="tocnumber">1.6.4</span> <span class="toctext">weightp</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-65"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#me"><span class="tocnumber">1.6.5</span> <span class="toctext">me</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-66"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#merange"><span class="tocnumber">1.6.6</span> <span class="toctext">merange</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-67"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#mvrange"><span class="tocnumber">1.6.7</span> <span class="toctext">mvrange</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-68"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#mvrange-thread"><span class="tocnumber">1.6.8</span> <span class="toctext">mvrange-thread</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-69"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#subme"><span class="tocnumber">1.6.9</span> <span class="toctext">subme</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-70"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#subq"><span class="tocnumber">1.6.10</span> <span class="toctext">subq</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-71"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#psy-rd"><span class="tocnumber">1.6.11</span> <span class="toctext">psy-rd</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-72"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#no-mixed-refs"><span class="tocnumber">1.6.12</span> <span class="toctext">no-mixed-refs</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-73"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#no-chroma-me"><span class="tocnumber">1.6.13</span> <span class="toctext">no-chroma-me</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-74"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#no-8x8dct"><span class="tocnumber">1.6.14</span> <span class="toctext">no-8x8dct</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-75"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#trellis"><span class="tocnumber">1.6.15</span> <span class="toctext">trellis</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-76"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#no-fast-pskip"><span class="tocnumber">1.6.16</span> <span class="toctext">no-fast-pskip</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-77"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#no-dct-decimate"><span class="tocnumber">1.6.17</span> <span class="toctext">no-dct-decimate</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-78"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#nr"><span class="tocnumber">1.6.18</span> <span class="toctext">nr</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-79"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#deadzone-inter.2Fintra"><span class="tocnumber">1.6.19</span> <span class="toctext">deadzone-inter/intra</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-80"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#cqm"><span class="tocnumber">1.6.20</span> <span class="toctext">cqm</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-81"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#cqmfile"><span class="tocnumber">1.6.21</span> <span class="toctext">cqmfile</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-82"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#cqm4.2A_.2F_cqm8.2A"><span class="tocnumber">1.6.22</span> <span class="toctext">cqm4* / cqm8*</span></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-83"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#Video_Usability_Info"><span class="tocnumber">1.7</span> <span class="toctext">Video Usability Info</span></a>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-84"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#overscan"><span class="tocnumber">1.7.1</span> <span class="toctext">overscan</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-85"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#videoformat"><span class="tocnumber">1.7.2</span> <span class="toctext">videoformat</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-86"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#range"><span class="tocnumber">1.7.3</span> <span class="toctext">range</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-87"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#colorprim"><span class="tocnumber">1.7.4</span> <span class="toctext">colorprim</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-88"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#transfer"><span class="tocnumber">1.7.5</span> <span class="toctext">transfer</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-89"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#colormatrix"><span class="tocnumber">1.7.6</span> <span class="toctext">colormatrix</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-90"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#chromaloc"><span class="tocnumber">1.7.7</span> <span class="toctext">chromaloc</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-91"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#nal-hrd"><span class="tocnumber">1.7.8</span> <span class="toctext">nal-hrd</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-92"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#pic-struct"><span class="tocnumber">1.7.9</span> <span class="toctext">pic-struct</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-93"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#crop-rect"><span class="tocnumber">1.7.10</span> <span class="toctext">crop-rect</span></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-94"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#Input.2FOutput"><span class="tocnumber">1.8</span> <span class="toctext">Input/Output</span></a>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-95"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#output"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.1</span> <span class="toctext">output</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-96"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#muxer"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.2</span> <span class="toctext">muxer</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-97"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#demuxer"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.3</span> <span class="toctext">demuxer</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-98"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#input-csp"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.4</span> <span class="toctext">input-csp</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-99"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#output-csp"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.5</span> <span class="toctext">output-csp</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-100"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#input-range"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.6</span> <span class="toctext">input-range</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-101"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#input-res"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.7</span> <span class="toctext">input-res</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-102"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#index"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.8</span> <span class="toctext">index</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-103"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#sar"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.9</span> <span class="toctext">sar</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-104"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#fps"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.10</span> <span class="toctext">fps</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-105"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#seek"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.11</span> <span class="toctext">seek</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-106"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#frames"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.12</span> <span class="toctext">frames</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-107"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#level"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.13</span> <span class="toctext">level</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-108"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#bluray-compat"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.14</span> <span class="toctext">bluray-compat</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-109"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#verbose"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.15</span> <span class="toctext">verbose</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-110"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#no-progress"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.16</span> <span class="toctext">no-progress</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-111"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#quiet"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.17</span> <span class="toctext">quiet</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-112"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#log-level"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.18</span> <span class="toctext">log-level</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-113"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#psnr"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.19</span> <span class="toctext">psnr</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-114"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#ssim"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.20</span> <span class="toctext">ssim</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-115"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#threads"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.21</span> <span class="toctext">threads</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-116"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#sliced-threads"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.22</span> <span class="toctext">sliced-threads</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-117"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#thread-input"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.23</span> <span class="toctext">thread-input</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-118"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#sync-lookahead"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.24</span> <span class="toctext">sync-lookahead</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-119"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#non-deterministic"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.25</span> <span class="toctext">non-deterministic</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-120"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#asm"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.26</span> <span class="toctext">asm</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-121"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#no-asm"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.27</span> <span class="toctext">no-asm</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-122"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#visualize"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.28</span> <span class="toctext">visualize</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-123"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#dump-yuv"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.29</span> <span class="toctext">dump-yuv</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-124"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#sps-id"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.30</span> <span class="toctext">sps-id</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-125"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#aud"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.31</span> <span class="toctext">aud</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-126"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#force-cfr"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.32</span> <span class="toctext">force-cfr</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-127"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#tcfile-in"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.33</span> <span class="toctext">tcfile-in</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-128"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#tcfile-out"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.34</span> <span class="toctext">tcfile-out</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-129"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#timebase"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.35</span> <span class="toctext">timebase</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-130"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#dts-compress"><span class="tocnumber">1.8.36</span> <span class="toctext">dts-compress</span></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-131"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#Filtering"><span class="tocnumber">2</span> <span class="toctext">Filtering</span></a>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-132"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#video-filter"><span class="tocnumber">2.1</span> <span class="toctext">video-filter</span></a>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-133"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#crop"><span class="tocnumber">2.1.1</span> <span class="toctext">crop</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-134"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#resize"><span class="tocnumber">2.1.2</span> <span class="toctext">resize</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-135"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#select_every"><span class="tocnumber">2.1.3</span> <span class="toctext">select_every</span></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-136"><a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#See_Also"><span class="tocnumber">3</span> <span class="toctext">See Also</span></a></li>
</ul>
</td></tr></tbody></table><script>if (window.showTocToggle) { var tocShowText = "show"; var tocHideText = "hide"; showTocToggle(); } </script>
</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>This page explains the purpose and use of all x264 parameters. Parameters are ordered the same as their appearance in <code>x264 --fullhelp</code>.
</p><p>See also <a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Stats_Output" title="X264 Stats Output">x264 Stats Output</a>, <a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Stats_File" title="X264 Stats File">x264 Stats File</a> and <a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Encoding_Suggestions" title="X264 Encoding Suggestions">x264 Encoding Suggestions</a>.
</p>
<h1> <span class="mw-headline" id="x264_Settings">x264 Settings</span></h1>
<h2> <span class="mw-headline" id="Help">Help</span></h2>
<p>x264 comes with some inbuilt documentation. To access this help, run x264 with <code>--help</code>, <code>--longhelp</code> or <code>--fullhelp</code>. Each successive option will give more detailed information.
</p>
<h2> <span class="mw-headline" id="Input">Input</span></h2>
<p>Specify the input video with a single positional argument. For example:
</p>
<pre>x264.exe <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#output" title="X264 Settings">output</a></code> NUL <b>C:\input.avs</b>
x264 <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#output" title="X264 Settings">output</a></code> /dev/null <b>~/input.y4m</b>
</pre>
<p>When your input is raw YUV you must also tell x264 the input resolution. You probably want to specify the framerate with <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#fps" title="X264 Settings">fps</a></code> as well:
</p>
<pre>x264.exe <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#output" title="X264 Settings">output</a></code> NUL <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#fps" title="X264 Settings">fps</a></code> 25 <b><code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#input-res" title="X264 Settings">input-res</a></code> 1280x720</b> D:\input.yuv 
x264 <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#output" title="X264 Settings">output</a></code> /dev/null <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#fps" title="X264 Settings">fps</a></code> 30000/1001 <b><code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#input-res" title="X264 Settings">input-res</a></code> 640x480</b> ~/input.yuv
</pre>
<h2> <span class="mw-headline" id="Presets">Presets</span></h2>
<p>A system designed to reduce the work needed to generate sane, efficient commandlines that do what you want. For information on what options these settings toggle, check the output of <code>x264.exe --fullhelp</code>.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="profile">profile</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: not set</b>
</p><p>Limit the profile of the output stream. If you specify a profile, it overrides all other settings, so if you use it, you will be guaranteed a compatible stream. If you set this option, you cannot use lossless encoding (<code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#qp" title="X264 Settings">qp</a></code> 0 or <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#crf" title="X264 Settings">crf</a></code> 0).
</p><p>You should set this if you know your playback device only supports a certain profile. Most decoders support High profile, so there's no need to set this.
</p><p>Values available: <code>baseline, main, high, high10, high422, high444</code>.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="preset">preset</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: medium</b>
</p><p>Change options to trade off compression efficiency against encoding speed. If you specify a preset, the changes it makes will be applied before all other parameters are applied.
</p><p>You should generally set this option to the slowest you can bear.
</p><p>Values available: <code>ultrafast, superfast, veryfast, faster, fast, medium, slow, slower, veryslow, placebo</code>.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="tune">tune</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Tune options to further optimize them for your input content. If you specify a tuning, the changes will be applied after <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#preset" title="X264 Settings">preset</a></code> but before all other parameters.
</p><p>If your source content matches one of the available tunings you can use this, otherwise leave unset.
</p><p>Values available: <code>film, animation, grain, stillimage, psnr, ssim, fastdecode, zerolatency</code>.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="slow-firstpass">slow-firstpass</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Using <i><code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#pass" title="X264 Settings">pass</a></code> 1</i> applies the following settings at the end of parsing the command line:
</p>
<ul><li> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#ref" title="X264 Settings">ref</a></code> 1
</li><li> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#no-8x8dct" title="X264 Settings">no-8x8dct</a></code>
</li><li> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#partitions" title="X264 Settings">partitions</a></code> i4x4 (if originally enabled, else none)
</li><li> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#me" title="X264 Settings">me</a></code> dia
</li><li> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#subme" title="X264 Settings">subme</a></code> MIN( 2, subme )
</li><li> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#trellis" title="X264 Settings">trellis</a></code> 0
</li></ul>
<p>You can set <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#slow-firstpass" title="X264 Settings">slow-firstpass</a></code> to disable this.
</p><p>Note: <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#preset" title="X264 Settings">preset</a></code><code> placebo</code> enables <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#slow-firstpass" title="X264 Settings">slow-firstpass</a></code>.
</p><p><b>See also:</b> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#pass" title="X264 Settings">pass</a></code>.
</p>
<h2> <span class="mw-headline" id="Frame-type_options">Frame-type options</span></h2>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="keyint">keyint</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 250</b>
</p><p>Sets the maximum interval between IDR-frames (aka <i>keyframes</i>) in x264's output. You can specify "infinite" to never insert non-scenecut IDR-frames.
</p><p>IDR-frames are 'delimiters' in the stream - no frame can reference data from the other side of the IDR-frame. As well as this, IDR-frames are also I-frames, so they don't reference data from any other frame. This means they can be used as seek points in a video.
</p><p>Note that I-frames are generally significantly larger than P/B-frames (often 10x or more in low motion scenes), so they can play havoc with ratecontrol when combined with aggressively low VBV settings (eg, sub-second buffer sizes). In these cases, investigate <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#intra-refresh" title="X264 Settings">intra-refresh</a></code>.
</p><p>The default setting is fine for most videos. When encoding for Blu-ray, broadcast, live streaming or certain other specialist scenarios you may require a significantly smaller GOP length (often ~1x fps).
</p><p><b>See also: </b><code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#min-keyint" title="X264 Settings">min-keyint</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#scenecut" title="X264 Settings">scenecut</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#intra-refresh" title="X264 Settings">intra-refresh</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="min-keyint">min-keyint</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: auto (MIN(<code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#keyint" title="X264 Settings">keyint</a></code> / 10,<code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#fps" title="X264 Settings">fps</a></code>))</b>
</p><p>Sets the minimum length between IDR-frames.
</p><p>See <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#keyint" title="X264 Settings">keyint</a></code> for an explanation of IDR-frames. Very small keyint ranges can cause "incorrect" IDR-frame placement (for example, a strobing scene). This option limits the minimum length in frames after each IDR-frame before another can be placed.
</p><p>The maximum allowed value for min-keyint is <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#keyint" title="X264 Settings">keyint</a></code>/2+1
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default, or 1x your framerate.
</p><p><b>See also:</b> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#keyint" title="X264 Settings">keyint</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#scenecut" title="X264 Settings">scenecut</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="no-scenecut">no-scenecut</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Completely disables adaptive I-frame decision.
</p><p><b>See also: </b> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#scenecut" title="X264 Settings">scenecut</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="scenecut">scenecut</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 40</b>
</p><p>Sets the threshold for I/IDR frame placement (read: scene change detection).
</p><p>x264 calculates a metric for every frame to estimate how different it is from the previous frame. If the value is lower than scenecut, a 'scenecut' is detected. An I-frame is placed if it has been less than <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#min-keyint" title="X264 Settings">min-keyint</a></code> frames since the last IDR-frame, otherwise an IDR-frame is placed. Higher values of scenecut increase the number of scenecuts detected. For more information on how the scenecut comparison works, see <a href="http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=121116" class="external text" rel="nofollow">this doom9 thread</a>.
</p><p>Setting scenecut to 0 is equivalent to setting <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#no-scenecut" title="X264 Settings">no-scenecut</a></code>.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p><p><b>See also:</b> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#keyint" title="X264 Settings">keyint</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#min-keyint" title="X264 Settings">min-keyint</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#no-scenecut" title="X264 Settings">no-scenecut</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="intra-refresh">intra-refresh</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Off</b>
</p><p>Disables IDR-frames, instead x264 uses intra coding for each macroblock in the frame every <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#keyint" title="X264 Settings">keyint</a></code> frames. Blocks are refreshed in a horizontally scrolling column - the 'refresh wave'. This benefits low-latency streaming by making it possible to achieve more constant frame sizes than is possible with standard IDR-frames. It also increases the resilience of the video stream to packet loss. This option does reduce compression efficiency, hence only use it when needed.
</p><p>Fun facts:
</p>
<ul><li> The first frame is still an IDR frame.
</li><li> Intra-blocks are placed only in P-frames - the refresh wave is wider in the first P-frame after one or more B-frames.
</li><li> The loss in compression efficiency comes primarily from the fact macroblocks on the 'new' (left) side of the refresh wave can't refer to data on the 'old' (right) side.
</li></ul>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="bframes">bframes</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 3</b>
</p><p>Sets the maximum number of concurrent B-frames that x264 can use.
</p><p>Without B-frames, a typical x264 stream has frame types like so: IPPPPP...PI. With <i>--bframes 2</i>, up to two consecutive P-frames can be replaced with B-frames, like: IBPBBPBPPPB...PI.
</p><p>B-frames are similar to P-frames, except they can use motion prediction from future frames as well. This can lead to significantly better efficiency in terms of compression ratio. Their average quality is controlled by <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#pbratio" title="X264 Settings">pbratio</a></code>.
</p><p><b>Fun facts:</b>
</p>
<ul><li> x264 also occasionally distinguishes between two different sorts of B-frames. A 'B' can refer to a B-frame that is used as a reference by other frames (see <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#b-pyramid" title="X264 Settings">b-pyramid</a></code>, while 'b' can  refer to a B-frame that is not. If you see a mix of 'B' and 'b', it's usually related to the above. When the difference is not important, just 'B' is generally used to refer to all B-frames.
</li><li> For more information about the choices x264 makes between P or B frames for each candidate frame, see <a href="http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.devel/29064" class="external text" rel="nofollow">this ffmpeg-devel mail</a>.  In this case, frame types will look like this (in display order) (assuming <i>--bframes 3</i>): IBBBPBBBPBPI.
</li></ul>
<p><b>See also: </b><code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#no-b-adapt" title="X264 Settings">no-b-adapt</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#b-bias" title="X264 Settings">b-bias</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#b-pyramid" title="X264 Settings">b-pyramid</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#ref" title="X264 Settings">ref</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#pbratio" title="X264 Settings">pbratio</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#partitions" title="X264 Settings">partitions</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#weightb" title="X264 Settings">weightb</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="b-adapt">b-adapt</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 1</b>
</p><p>Set the adaptive B-frame placement decision algorithm. This setting controls how x264 decides between placing a P- or B-frame.
</p>
<dl><dd>0. Disabled. Pick B-frames always. This is the same as what the older <tt>no-b-adapt</tt> setting did.
</dd></dl>
<dl><dd>1. 'Fast' algorithm, faster, speed slightly increases with higher <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#b-frames" title="X264 Settings">b-frames</a></code> setting. When using this mode, you basically always want to use <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#bframes" title="X264 Settings">bframes</a></code> 16.
</dd></dl>
<dl><dd>2. 'Optimal' algorithm, slower, speed significantly decreases with higher <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#b-frames" title="X264 Settings">b-frames</a></code> setting.
</dd></dl>
<p>Note: For a multi-pass encode, this option is only needed for the first pass where frame types are decided.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="b-bias">b-bias</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 0</b>
</p><p>Controls the likelihood of B-frames being used instead of P-frames. Values greater than 0 increase the weighting towards B-frames, while values less than 0 do the opposite. This number is an arbitrary metric. The range is from -100 to 100. A value of 100/-100 does not guarantee every/no P-frame will be converted (use <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#b-adapt" title="X264 Settings">b-adapt</a></code> 0<i> for that).</i>
</p><p>Only use this if you think you make better ratecontrol decisions than x264.
</p><p><b>See also: </b><code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#b-frames" title="X264 Settings">b-frames</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#ipratio" title="X264 Settings">ipratio</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="b-pyramid">b-pyramid</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: normal</b>
</p><p>Allow the use of B-frames as references for other frames. Without this setting, frames can only reference I- or P-frames. Although I/P-frames are more valued as references because of their higher quality, B-frames can also be useful. B-frames designated as references will get a quantizer halfway between P-frames and normal B-frames. You need to use at least two B-frames before B-pyramid will work.
</p><p>If you're encoding for Blu-ray, use 'none' or 'strict'.
</p>
<ul><li><b>none</b>: do not allow B-frames to be used as references.
</li><li><b>strict</b>: allow one B-frame per minigop to be used as reference; enforces restrictions imposed by the Blu-ray standard.
</li><li><b>normal</b>: allow numerous B-frames per minigop to be used as references.
</li></ul>
<p><b>See also: </b><code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#bframes" title="X264 Settings">bframes</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#refs" title="X264 Settings">refs</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#no-mixed-refs" title="X264 Settings">no-mixed-refs</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="open-gop">open-gop</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: none</b>
</p><p>Open-GOP is an encoding technique which increases efficiency. Some decoders don't fully support open-GOP streams, which is why it hasn't been enabled by default. You should test with all decoders your streams will be played on, or (if that's impossible) wait until support is generally available.
</p><p><a href="http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1300124#post1300124" class="external text" rel="nofollow">There's an explanation of Open-GOP here.</a>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="no-cabac">no-cabac</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not set</b>
</p><p>Disables CABAC <small>(<b>C</b>ontext <b>A</b>daptive <b>B</b>inary <b>A</b>rithmetic <b>C</b>oder)</small> stream compression and falls back to the less efficient CAVLC <small>(<b>C</b>ontext <b>A</b>daptive <b>V</b>ariable <b>L</b>ength <b>C</b>oder)</small> system. Significantly reduces both the compression efficiency (10-20% typically) and the decoding requirements.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="ref">ref</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 3</b>
</p><p>Controls the size of the DPB (<b>D</b>ecoded <b>P</b>icture <b>B</b>uffer). The range is from 0-16. In short, this value is the number of previous frames each P-frame can use as references. (B-frames can use one or two fewer, depending on if they are used as references or not.) The minimum number of refs that can be referenced is 1.
</p><p>Also note that the H.264 spec limits DPB size for each level. If adhering to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Levels" class="external text" rel="nofollow">Level 4.1</a> specs, the maximum refs for 720p and 1080p video are 9 and 4 respectively. You can read more about levels and 4.1 in particular under <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#level" title="X264 Settings">level</a></code>.
</p><p><b>See also: </b><code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#b-pyramid" title="X264 Settings">b-pyramid</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#no-mixed-refs" title="X264 Settings">no-mixed-refs</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#level" title="X264 Settings">level</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="no-deblock">no-deblock</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Completely disables the loop filter. Not Recommended.
</p><p><b>See Also:</b> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#deblock" title="X264 Settings">deblock</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="deblock">deblock</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 0:0</b>
</p><p>Controls the loop filter (aka inloop deblocker), which is part of the H.264 standard. It is very efficient in terms of encoding time vs. quality gained.
</p><p>You can find a good description of how the loop filter parameters work in <a href="http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=109747" class="external text" rel="nofollow">this doom9 thread</a> (see the initial post and akupenguin's replies).
</p><p><b>See Also:</b> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#no-deblock" title="X264 Settings">no-deblock</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="slices">slices</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 0</b>
</p><p>Sets the number of slices per frame, and forces rectangular slices. (Overridden by either <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#slice-max-size" title="X264 Settings">slice-max-size</a></code> or <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#slice-max-mbs" title="X264 Settings">slice-max-mbs</a></code> if they are set.)
</p><p>If you are encoding for Blu-ray, set this to four. Otherwise, don't use this unless you know you need to.
</p><p><b>See Also:</b> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#slice-max-size" title="X264 Settings">slice-max-size</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#slice-max-mbs" title="X264 Settings">slice-max-mbs</a></code>.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="slice-max-size">slice-max-size</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 0</b>
</p><p>Sets the maximum slice size in bytes, including estimated NAL overhead. (Currently is not compatible with <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#interlaced" title="X264 Settings">interlaced</a></code>.)
</p><p><b>See Also:</b> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#slices" title="X264 Settings">slices</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="slice-max-mbs">slice-max-mbs</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 0</b>
</p><p>Sets the maximum slice size in macroblocks. (Currently is not compatible with <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#interlaced" title="X264 Settings">interlaced</a></code>.)
</p><p><b>See Also:</b> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#slices" title="X264 Settings">slices</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="tff">tff</span></h3>
<p>Enable interlaced encoding and specify the top field is first. x264's interlaced encoding uses MBAFF, and is inherently less efficient than progressive encoding. For that reason, you should only encode interlaced if you intend to display the video on an interlaced display (or can't deinterlace the video before sending it to x264). Implies <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#pic-struct" title="X264 Settings">pic-struct</a></code>.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="bff">bff</span></h3>
<p>Enable interlaced encoding and specify the bottom field is first. See <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#tff" title="X264 Settings">tff</a></code> for more info.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="no-interlaced">no-interlaced</span></h3>
<p>Forces x264 to output in progressive mode.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="constrained-intra">constrained-intra</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Enable constrained intra prediction, which is required for the base layer of SVC encodes. Since Everyone<sup>TM</sup> ignores SVC you can likewise ignore this switch.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="pulldown">pulldown</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: none</b>
</p><p>Signal soft telecine for your (progressive, constant framerate) input stream using one of a few preset modes. Soft telecine is explained in more detail on the <a href="http://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/Telecine" class="external text" rel="nofollow">HandBrake wiki</a>. The available presets are: <tt>none, 22, 32, 64, double, triple</tt> and <tt>euro</tt>.
</p><p>Specifying any mode but <tt>none</tt> implies <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#pic-struct" title="X264 Settings">pic-struct</a></code>.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="fake-interlaced">fake-interlaced</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Mark a stream as interlaced even when not encoding as interlaced. Allows encoding of 25p and 30p Blu-ray compliant videos.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="frame-packing">frame-packing</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>If you're encoding 3d video, this parameter sets a bitstream flag that tells your decoder how the 3d video was packed. The values and what they mean can be found in <tt>x264 --fullhelp</tt>.
</p>
<h2> <span class="mw-headline" id="Ratecontrol">Ratecontrol</span></h2>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="qp">qp</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>The first of three possible ratecontrol methods. Set x264 to encode the movie in <b>C</b>onstant <b>Q</b>uantizer mode. The number you give here specifies the P-frame quantizer. The quantizer used for I- and B-frames is derived from <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#ipratio" title="X264 Settings">ipratio</a></code> and <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#pbratio" title="X264 Settings">pbratio</a></code>. CQ mode targets a certain quantizer, which means final filesize is not known (although it can be reasonably accurately estimated with some methods). A setting of 0 will produce lossless output. qp produces larger files than <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#crf" title="X264 Settings">crf</a></code> for the same visual quality.  qp mode also disables adaptive quantization, since by definition 'constant quantizer' implies no adaptive quantization.
</p><p>This option is mutually exclusive with <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#bitrate" title="X264 Settings">bitrate</a></code> and <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#crf" title="X264 Settings">crf</a></code>. See <a href="http://git.videolan.org/?p=x264.git;a=blob_plain;f=doc/ratecontrol.txt;hb=HEAD" class="external text" rel="nofollow">this writeup</a> for more information on the various ratecontrol systems.
</p><p>You should generally use <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#crf" title="X264 Settings">crf</a></code> instead, although qp doesn't require lookahead to run and thus can be faster.
</p><p>See also: <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#bitrate" title="X264 Settings">bitrate</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#crf" title="X264 Settings">crf</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#ipratio" title="X264 Settings">ipratio</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#pbratio" title="X264 Settings">pbratio</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="bitrate">bitrate</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>The second of three ratecontrol methods. Encode the video in target bitrate mode. Target bitrate mode means the final filesize is known, but the final quality is not. x264 will attempt to encode the video to target the given bitrate as the overall average. The parameter given is the bitrate in kilobits/sec. <small>(8bits = 1byte and so on)</small>. Note that 1 kilobit is 1000, not 1024 bits.
</p><p>This setting is often used in conjunction with <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#pass" title="X264 Settings">pass</a></code> for two-pass encoding.
</p><p>This option is mutually exclusive with <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#qp" title="X264 Settings">qp</a></code> and <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#crf" title="X264 Settings">crf</a></code>. See <a href="http://git.videolan.org/?p=x264.git;a=blob_plain;f=doc/ratecontrol.txt;hb=HEAD" class="external text" rel="nofollow">this writeup</a> for more information on the various ratecontrol systems.
</p><p><b>See also:</b> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#qp" title="X264 Settings">qp</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#crf" title="X264 Settings">crf</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#ratetol" title="X264 Settings">ratetol</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#pass" title="X264 Settings">pass</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#stats" title="X264 Settings">stats</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="crf">crf</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 23.0</b>
</p><p>The final ratecontrol method: <b>C</b>onstant <b>R</b>ate<b>f</b>actor. While qp targets a certain quantizer, and bitrate targets a certain filesize, crf targets a certain 'quality'. The idea is for crf n to give the same perceptual quality as qp n, just in a smaller space. The arbitrary unit of measure for crf values is the "ratefactor".
</p><p>CRF achieves this by reducing the quality of 'less important' frames. In this context, 'less important' means frames in complex or high-motion scenes, where quality is either more expensive (in terms of bits) or less visible, will have their quantizer increased. The bits saved in frames like these are redistributed to frames where they will be more effective.
</p><p>CRF will take less time than a 2pass bitrate encode, because the 'first pass' from a 2pass encode was skipped. On the other hand, it's impossible to predict the bitrate a CRF encode will come out to. It's up to you to decide which rate-control mode is better for your circumstances.
</p><p>This option is mutually exclusive with qp and bitrate. See <a href="http://git.videolan.org/?p=x264.git;a=blob_plain;f=doc/ratecontrol.txt;hb=HEAD" class="external text" rel="nofollow">this writeup</a> for more information on the various ratecontrol systems.
</p><p>See also: <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#qp" title="X264 Settings">qp</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#bitrate" title="X264 Settings">bitrate</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="rc-lookahead">rc-lookahead</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 40</b>
</p><p>Sets the number of frames to use for mb-tree ratecontrol and vbv-lookahead. The maximum allowed value is <b>250</b>.
</p><p>For the mb-tree portion of this, increasing the frame count generates better results but is also slower. The maximum buffer value used by mb-tree is the MIN( rc-lookahead, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#keyint" title="X264 Settings">keyint</a></code> )
</p><p>For the vbv-lookahead portion of this, increasing the frame count generates better stability and accuracy when using vbv. The maximum value used by vbv-lookahead is:
</p>
<pre>MIN(rc-lookahead, MAX(<code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#keyint" title="X264 Settings">keyint</a></code>, MAX(<code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#vbv-maxrate" title="X264 Settings">vbv-maxrate</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#bitrate" title="X264 Settings">bitrate</a></code>) / <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#vbv-bufsize" title="X264 Settings">vbv-bufsize</a></code> * <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#fps" title="X264 Settings">fps</a></code>))
</pre>
<p><b>See Also:</b> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#no-mbtree" title="X264 Settings">no-mbtree</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#vbv-bufsize" title="X264 Settings">vbv-bufsize</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#vbv-maxrate" title="X264 Settings">vbv-maxrate</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#sync-lookahead" title="X264 Settings">sync-lookahead</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="vbv-maxrate">vbv-maxrate</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 0</b>
</p><p>Sets the maximum rate the VBV buffer should be assumed to refill at.
</p><p>VBV reduces quality, so you should only use this if you're encoding for a playback scenario that requires it.
</p><p><b>See also:</b> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#vbv-bufsize" title="X264 Settings">vbv-bufsize</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#vbv-init" title="X264 Settings">vbv-init</a></code>, <a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Encoding_Suggestions#VBV_Encoding" title="X264 Encoding Suggestions">VBV Encoding Suggestions</a>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="vbv-bufsize">vbv-bufsize</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 0</b>
</p><p>Sets the size of the VBV buffer in kilobits.
</p><p>VBV reduces quality, so you should only use this if you're encoding for a playback scenario that requires it.
</p><p><b>See also:</b> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#vbv-maxrate" title="X264 Settings">vbv-maxrate</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#vbv-init" title="X264 Settings">vbv-init</a></code>, <a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Encoding_Suggestions#VBV_Encoding" title="X264 Encoding Suggestions">VBV Encoding Suggestions</a>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="vbv-init">vbv-init</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 0.9</b>
</p><p>Sets how full the VBV Buffer must be before playback starts.
</p><p>If it is less than 1, the the initial fill is: <tt>vbv-init * vbv-bufsize</tt>.
Otherwise it is interpreted as the initial fill in kbits.
</p><p>See also: <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#vbv-maxsize" title="X264 Settings">vbv-maxsize</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#vbv-bufsize" title="X264 Settings">vbv-bufsize</a></code>, <a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Encoding_Suggestions#VBV_Encoding" title="X264 Encoding Suggestions">VBV Encoding Suggestions</a>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="crf-max">crf-max</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not set</b>
</p><p>A similar setting to <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#qpmax" title="X264 Settings">qpmax</a></code> except instead of specifying a maximum quantizer you're specifying a maximum ratefactor. This option only works when you are using CRF and have VBV enabled. It prevents x264 from reducing the ratefactor (aka "quality") below the given value even when doing so would violate VBV constraints. This setting is mostly applicable to custom streaming servers. More information can be found in the <a href="http://git.videolan.org/gitweb.cgi/x264.git/?a=commit;h=81eee062a4ce9aae1eceb3befcae855c25e5ec52" class="external text" rel="nofollow">initial commit message</a>.
</p><p><b>See Also:</b> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#crf" title="X264 Settings">crf</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#vbv-maxrate" title="X264 Settings">vbv-maxrate</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#vbv-bufsize" title="X264 Settings">vbv-bufsize</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="qpmin">qpmin</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 0</b>
</p><p>Defines the minimum quantizer that x264 will ever use. The lower the quantizer, the closer the output is to the input. At some point, the output of x264 will look the same as the input, even though it is not exactly the same. Usually there is no reason to allow x264 to spend more bits than this on any particular macroblock.
</p><p>With adaptive quantization enabled (the default), raising qpmin is discouraged because this could reduce the quality of flat background areas of the frame.
</p><p>See also: <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#qpmax" title="X264 Settings">qpmax</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#ipratio" title="X264 Settings">ipratio</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="qpmax">qpmax</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 51</b>
</p><p>The opposite of qpmin, above. Defines the maximum quantizer that x264 can use. The default of 51 is the highest quantizer available for use in the H.264 spec, and is extremely low quality. This default effectively disables qpmax. You may want to set this lower (values in the 30-40 range are generally as low as you'd go) if you want to cap the minimum quality x264 can output, but adjusting it is generally not recommended.
</p><p>See also: <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#qpmin" title="X264 Settings">qpmin</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#pbratio" title="X264 Settings">pbratio</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#crf-max" title="X264 Settings">crf-max</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="qpstep">qpstep</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 4</b>
</p><p>Sets the maximum change in quantizer between two frames.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="ratetol">ratetol</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 1.0</b>
</p><p>This is a dual purpose parameter:
</p>
<ul><li> In 1-pass bitrate encodes, this settings controls the percentage that x264 can miss the target average bitrate by. You can set this to 'inf' to disable this overflow detection completely. The lowest you can set this is to 0.01. The higher you set this to the better x264 can react to complex scenes near the end of the movie. The unit of measure for this purpose is percent (eg, 1.0 = 1% bitrate deviation allowed).
</li></ul>
<dl><dd><dl><dd><small>Many movies (any action movie, for instance) are most complex at the climatic finale. As a 1pass encode doesn't know this, the number of bits required for the end is usually underestimated. A ratetol of inf can mitigate this by allowing the encode to function more like a <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#crf" title="X264 Settings">crf</a></code> encode, but the filesize will blow out.</small>
</dd></dl>
</dd></dl>
<ul><li> When VBV is activated (ie, you're specified --vbv-* options), this setting also affects VBV aggressiveness. Setting this higher allows VBV to fluctuate more at the risk of possibly violating the VBV settings. For this purpose, the unit of measure is arbitrary.
</li></ul>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="ipratio">ipratio</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 1.40</b>
</p><p>Modifies the target average increase in quantizer for I-frames as compared to P-frames. Higher values increase the quality of I-frames generated.
</p><p>See also: <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#pbratio" title="X264 Settings">pbratio</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="pbratio">pbratio</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 1.30</b>
</p><p>Modifies the target average decrease in quantizer for B-frames as compared to P-frames. Higher values decrease the quality of B-frames generated.  Not used with mbtree (enabled by default), which calculates the optimum value automatically.
</p><p>See also: <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#ipratio" title="X264 Settings">ipratio</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="chroma-qp-offset">chroma-qp-offset</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 0</b>
</p><p>Add an offset to the quantizer of chroma planes when encoding. The offset can be negative.
</p><p>When using psy options are enabled (psy-rd, psy-trellis), x264 automatically subtracts 2 from this value to compensate for these optimisations overly favouring luma detail by default.
</p><p>Note: x264 only encodes the luma and chroma planes at the same quantizer up to quantizer 29. After this, chroma is progressively quantized by a lower amount than luma until you end with luma at q51 and chroma at q39. This behavior is required by the H.264 standard.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="aq-mode">aq-mode</span></h3>
<p>Adaptive Quantization Mode
</p><p><b>Default: 1</b>
</p><p>Without AQ, x264 tends to underallocate bits to less-detailed sections. AQ is used to better distribute the available bits between all macroblocks in the video. This setting changes what scope AQ re-arranges bits in:
</p>
<ul><li> 0: Do not use AQ at all.
</li><li> 1: Allow AQ to redistribute bits across the whole video and within frames.
</li><li> 2: Auto-variance AQ (experimental) which attempts to adapt strength per-frame.
</li></ul>
<p><b>See also:</b> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#aq-strength" title="X264 Settings">aq-strength</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="aq-strength">aq-strength</span></h3>
<p>Adaptive Quantization Strength
</p><p><b>Default:</b> 1.0
</p><p>Sets the strength of AQ bias towards low detail ('flat') macroblocks. Negative values are not allowed. Values outside the range 0.0 - 2.0 are probably a bad idea.
</p><p><b>See also:</b> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#aq-mode" title="X264 Settings">aq-mode</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="pass">pass</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>This is an important setting for 2pass encoding. It controls what x264 will do with the <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#stats" title="X264 Settings">stats</a></code> file. It has three settings:
</p>
<ul><li><b>1</b>: Create a new stats file. Use this on the first pass.
</li><li><b>2</b>: Read the stats file. Use this on the final pass.
</li><li><b>3</b>: Read the stats file, and update it as well.
</li></ul>
<p>The stats file contains information about every input frame, which can be input to x264 in order to improve the output. The idea is you run a first pass to generate the stats file, and the second pass will create an optimized encode of the video. The improvement is mostly gained from better ratecontrol.
</p><p>See also: <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#stats" title="X264 Settings">stats</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#bitrate" title="X264 Settings">bitrate</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#slow-firstpass" title="X264 Settings">slow-firstpass</a></code> <a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_statsfile" title="X264 statsfile" class="mw-redirect">X264_statsfile</a>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="stats">stats</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 'x264_2pass.log'</b>
</p><p>Set the location that x264 will read/write the <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#pass" title="X264 Settings">pass</a></code> <a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_statsfile" title="X264 statsfile" class="mw-redirect">X264_statsfile</a> to/from.
</p><p>See also: <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#pass" title="X264 Settings">pass</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="no-mbtree">no-mbtree</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Disable macroblock tree ratecontrol. Using macroblock tree ratecontrol overall improves the compression by keeping track of temporal propagation across frames and weighting accordingly.
Requires a new large statsfile in addition to the already existing for multipass encodes.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p><p><b>See Also:</b> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#rc-lookahead" title="X264 Settings">rc-lookahead</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="qcomp">qcomp</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 0.60</b>
</p><p>Quantizer curve compression factor. 0.0 =&gt; Constant Bitrate, 1.0 =&gt; Constant Quantizer.
</p><p>When used with mbtree, it affects the strength of mbtree. (Higher qcomp = weaker mbtree).
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p><p><b>See Also:</b> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#cplxblur" title="X264 Settings">cplxblur</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#qblur" title="X264 Settings">qblur</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="cplxblur">cplxblur</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 20</b>
</p><p>Apply a gaussian blur with the given radius to the quantizer curve. This means that the quantizer assigned to each frame is blurred temporally with its neighbours to limit quantizer fluctuations.
</p><p>See also: <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#qcomp" title="X264 Settings">qcomp</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#qblur" title="X264 Settings">qblur</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="qblur">qblur</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 0.5</b>
</p><p>Apply a gaussian blur with the given radius to the quantizer curve, after curve compression. Not a very important setting.
</p><p>See also: <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#qcomp" title="X264 Settings">qcomp</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#cplxblur" title="X264 Settings">cplxblur</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="zones">zones</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Tweak settings for specific sections of the video. You can modify most x264 options per-zone.
</p>
<ul><li> A single zone takes the form of &lt;start frame&gt;,&lt;end frame&gt;,&lt;options&gt;
</li><li> Multiple zones are separated from each other with a '/'
</li></ul>
<p><br>
<b>Options:</b>
</p><p>These two options are special. You can only set one per zone, and if you set one, it must be the first option listed for the zone:
</p>
<ul><li> b=&lt;float&gt; applies a bitrate multiplier on the zone. Useful for extra tweaking of high- and low-action scenes.
</li><li> q=&lt;int&gt; applies a constant quantizer on the zone. Useful for applying to a range of frames.
</li></ul>
<p>The other available options are as follows:
</p>
<ul><li>ref=&lt;integer&gt;
</li><li>b-bias=&lt;integer&gt;
</li><li>scenecut=&lt;integer&gt;
</li><li>no-deblock
</li><li>deblock=&lt;integer&gt;:&lt;integer&gt;
</li><li>deadzone-intra=&lt;integer&gt;
</li><li>deadzone-inter=&lt;integer&gt;
</li><li>direct=&lt;string&gt;
</li><li>merange=&lt;integer&gt;
</li><li>nr=&lt;integer&gt;
</li><li>subme=&lt;integer&gt;
</li><li>trellis=&lt;integer&gt;
</li><li>(no-)chroma-me
</li><li>(no-)dct-decimate
</li><li>(no-)fast-pskip
</li><li>(no-)mixed-refs
</li><li>psy-rd=&lt;float&gt;:&lt;float&gt;
</li><li>me=&lt;string&gt;
</li><li>no-8x8dct
</li><li>b-pyramid=&lt;string&gt;
</li><li>crf=&lt;float&gt;
</li></ul>
<p>Limitations:
</p>
<ul><li> The number of reference frames for a zone can never exceed what was specified with <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#ref" title="X264 Settings">ref</a></code>
</li><li> Scenecut can not be turned on and off; only varied if originally active (&gt;0)
</li><li> Merange can not exceed what was originally specified if <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#me" title="X264 Settings">me</a></code><i> esa</i>/<i>tesa</i>
</li><li> Subme can't be changed if the original commandline specified it as 0.
</li><li> You can't set me to esa or tesa if <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#me" title="X264 Settings">me</a></code> was originally specified as dia, hex, or umh
</li></ul>
<p><b>Example:</b> 0,1000,b=2/1001,2000,q=20,me=3,b-bias=-1000
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="qpfile">qpfile</span></h3>
<p>Manual override to standard ratecontrol. Specify a file that gives the quantizer and frametype for specified frames. The format is 'framenum frametype quantizer'. For example:
</p>
<pre>0 I 18 &lt; IDR (key) I-frame
1 P 18 &lt; P-frame
2 B 18 &lt; Referenced B-frame
3 i 18 &lt; Non-IDR (non-key) I-frame
4 b 18 &lt; Non-referenced B-frame
5 K 18 &lt; Keyframe*
</pre>
<ul><li> You don't need to specify every frame
</li><li> Using -1 as the desired quantizer allows x264 to choose the optimal quantizer value, useful when only needing to set the frametype
</li><li> Having a large number of specified frame types and quantizers while still letting x264 choose intermittently decreases x264's performance
</li><li> 'Keyframe' is a generic keyframe/seekpoint type that equates to a IDR I-Frame if <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#open-gop" title="X264 Settings">open-gop</a></code> is <code>none</code>, otherwise it equates to a Non-IDR I-Frame flagged with the Recovery Point SEI
</li></ul>
<h2> <span class="mw-headline" id="Analysis">Analysis</span></h2>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="partitions">partitions</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 'p8x8,b8x8,i8x8,i4x4'</b>
</p><p>H.264 video is split up into 16x16 macroblocks during compression. These blocks can be further split up into smaller partitions, which is what this option controls. 
</p><p>With this option, you enable individual partitions. Partitions are enabled per-frametype (i.e., I, P, B). The available partitions are
p8x8, p4x4, b8x8, i8x8, and i4x4.
</p>
<ul><li><b>I</b>: i8x8, i4x4
</li><li><b>P</b>: p8x8 (also enables p16x8/p8x16), p4x4 (also enables p8x4/p4x8)
</li><li><b>B</b>: b8x8 (also enables b16x8/b8x16)
</li></ul>
<p>You can also set 'none' or 'all'.
</p><p>p4x4 is generally not very useful and has an extremely high ratio of speed cost to resulting quality gain.
</p><p>See also: <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#no-8x8dct" title="X264 Settings">no-8x8dct</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="direct">direct</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 'spatial'</b>
</p><p>Set prediction mode for 'direct' motion vectors. There are two modes available: <b>spatial</b> and <b>temporal</b>. You can also select <b>none</b> to disable direct MVs, and <b>auto</b> to allow x264 to swap between them as it sees fit. If you set auto, x264 outputs information on the usage at the end of the encode. 'auto' works best in a 2pass encode, but will work in single-pass encodes too.  In first-pass auto mode, x264 keeps a running average of how well each method has so far performed, and picks the next prediction mode from that.  Note that you should only enable auto on the second pass if it was enabled on the first pass; if it wasn't, the second pass will default to temporal.  Direct none wastes bits and is strongly discouraged.
</p><p><b>Recommendation: 'auto'</b>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="no-weightb">no-weightb</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>H.264 allows you to 'weight' references in B-frames, which allows you to change how much each reference affects the predicted picture. This disables that feature.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="weightp">weightp</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 2</b>
</p><p>Enables use of explicit weighted prediction to improve compression in P-frames. Also improves quality in fades. Higher modes are slower.
</p><p>NOTE: When encoding for Adobe Flash set this to 1 - its decoder generates artifacts otherwise. Flash 10.1 fixes this bug.
</p><p>Modes:
</p>
<ul><li> 0. Disabled.
</li><li> 1. Simple: fade analysis, but no reference duplication.
</li><li> 2. Smart: fade analysis and reference duplication.
</li></ul>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="me">me</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 'hex'</b>
</p><p>Set the full-pixel motion estimation method. There are five choices:
</p>
<ul><li><b>dia</b> (diamond) is the simplest search, consisting of starting at the best predictor, checking the motion vectors at one pixel upwards, left, down, and to the right, picking the best, and repeating the process until it no longer finds any better motion vector.
</li><li><b>hex</b> (hexagon) consists of a similar strategy, except it uses a range-2 search of 6 surrounding points, thus the name. It is considerably more efficient than dia and hardly any slower, and therefore makes a good choice for general-use encoding.
</li><li><b>umh</b> (uneven multi-hex) is considerably slower than hex, but searches a complex multi-hexagon pattern in order to avoid missing harder-to-find motion vectors. Unlike hex and dia, the merange parameter directly controls umh's search radius, allowing one to increase or decrease the size of the wide search.
</li><li><b>esa</b> (exhaustive) is a highly optimized intelligent search of the entire motion search space within merange of the best predictor. It is mathematically equivalent to the bruteforce method of searching every single motion vector in that area, though faster. However, it is still considerably slower than UMH, with not too much benefit, so is not particularly useful for everyday encoding.
</li><li><b>tesa</b> (transformed exhaustive) is an algorithm which attempts to approximate the effect of running a Hadamard transform comparison at each motion vector; like exhaustive, but a little bit better and a little bit slower.
</li></ul>
<p>See also: <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#merange" title="X264 Settings">merange</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="merange">merange</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 16</b>
</p><p>merange controls the max range of the motion search in pixels. For hex and dia, the range is clamped to 4-16, with a default of 16. For umh and esa, it can be increased beyond the default 16 to allow for a wider-range motion search, which is useful on HD footage and for high-motion footage. Note that for umh, esa, and tesa, increasing merange will significantly slow down encoding.
</p><p>Extremely high merange (e.g. &gt;64) is unlikely to find any new motion vectors that are useful, so it may very slightly decrease compression in some cases by picking motion vector deltas so large that they even worsen prediction of future motion vectors in the rare cases they're locally useful, making them worse than useless.
</p><p>The effect is so small as to be near-negligible, though, and you shouldn't be using such insane settings.<a href="http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1544428#post1544428" class="external text" rel="nofollow">this post</a>
</p><p>See also: <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#me" title="X264 Settings">me</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="mvrange">mvrange</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: -1 (auto)</b>
</p><p>Set the maximum (vertical) range of any one motion vector in pixels. The default value is level-dependent:
</p>
<ul><li> Level 1/1b: 64
</li><li> Level 1.1-2.0: 128
</li><li> Level 2.1-3.0: 256
</li><li> Level 3.1+: 512
</li></ul>
<p>Note: if you want to manually override the mvrange, subtract 0.25 from the above values when setting (eg --mvrange 127.75).
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="mvrange-thread">mvrange-thread</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: -1 (auto)</b>
</p><p>Set the minimum motion vector buffer between threads. Don't touch it.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="subme">subme</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 7</b>
</p><p>Set the subpixel estimation complexity. Higher numbers are better. Levels 1-5 simply control the subpixel refinement strength. Level 6 enables RDO for mode decision, and level 8 enables RDO for motion vectors and intra prediction modes. RDO levels are significantly slower than the previous levels.
</p><p>Using a value less than 2 will enable a faster, and lower quality lookahead mode, as well as cause poorer <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#scenecut" title="X264 Settings">scenecut</a></code> decisions to be made, and thus it is not recommended.
</p><p>Possible Values:
</p>
<dl><dd>0. fullpel only
</dd><dd>1. QPel SAD 1 iteration
</dd><dd>2. QPel SATD 2 iterations
</dd><dd>3. HPel on MB then QPel
</dd><dd>4. Always QPel
</dd><dd>5. Multi QPel + bi-directional motion estimation
</dd><dd>6. RD on I/P frames
</dd><dd>7. RD on all frames
</dd><dd>8. RD refinement on I/P frames
</dd><dd>9. RD refinement on all frames
</dd><dd>10. QP-RD (requires <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#trellis" title="X264 Settings">trellis</a></code>=2, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#aq-mode" title="X264 Settings">aq-mode</a></code> &gt; 0)
</dd><dd>11. Full RD <a href="http://git.videolan.org/gitweb.cgi?p=x264.git;a=commit;h=9977b595fb7591e3616fa98677baf6e84e0f7029" class="external autonumber" rel="nofollow">[1]</a><a href="http://git.videolan.org/gitweb.cgi?p=x264.git;a=blobdiff;f=x264.c;h=29fe270247c0b60a2b8af2778041390514ce6b27;hp=e66da137f0ee6e2a57a8cacd32ab80ed4044a01a;hb=9977b595fb7591e3616fa98677baf6e84e0f7029;hpb=207ca3e95b38d734400e12f57faa16b778f0706c" class="external autonumber" rel="nofollow">[2]</a>
</dd></dl>
<p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default, or higher, unless speed is very important.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="subq">subq</span></h3>
<p>Alias of <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#subme" title="X264 Settings">subme</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="psy-rd">psy-rd</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 1.0:0.0</b>
</p><p>The first number is the strength of Psy-RDO to use (requires subme&gt;=6 to activate). The second number is the strength of Psy-Trellis (requires trellis&gt;=1 to activate). Note that Trellis is still considered 'experimental', and almost certainly is a Bad Thing for at least cartoons.
</p><p>See <a href="http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=138293" class="external text" rel="nofollow">this</a> thread on doom9 for an explanation of psy-rd.
</p><p>Life is short, and this article saved valubale time on this Earth.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="no-mixed-refs">no-mixed-refs</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Mixed refs will select refs on a per-8x8 partition, rather than per-macroblock basis. This improves quality when using multiple reference frames, albeit at some speed cost. Setting this option will disable it.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p><p>See also: <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#ref" title="X264 Settings">ref</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="no-chroma-me">no-chroma-me</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Normally, motion estimation works off both the luma and chroma planes. This disables chroma motion estimation for a small speed boost.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="no-8x8dct">no-8x8dct</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Adaptive 8x8 DCT enables the intelligent adaptive use of 8x8 transforms in I-frames.
This disables the feature.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="trellis">trellis</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 1 </b>
</p><p>Performs Trellis quantization to increase efficiency.
</p>
<dl><dd>0. Disabled
</dd><dd>1. Enabled only on the final encode of a macroblock
</dd><dd>2. Enabled on all mode decisions
</dd></dl>
<p>On Macroblock provides a good compromise between speed and efficiency. On all decisions reduces speed further. 
</p><p>See: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trellis_quantization" class="external text" rel="nofollow">Trellis Quantization</a>
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p><p><b>Note:</b> Requires <code>--<a href="./X264 Settings - MeWiki_files/X264 Settings - MeWiki.htm" title="X264 Settings">cabac</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="no-fast-pskip">no-fast-pskip</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Disables early skip detection on P-frames. At low bitrates, provides a moderate quality increase for a large speed cost. At high bitrates, has negligible effect on both speed and quality.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="no-dct-decimate">no-dct-decimate</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>DCT Decimation will drop DCT blocks it deems "unnecessary". This will improve coding efficiency, with a usually negligible loss in quality. Setting this option will disable it.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="nr">nr</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Performs fast noise reduction. Estimates film noise based on this value and attempts to remove it by dropping small details before quantization. This may not match the quality of a good external noise reduction filter, but it performs very fast.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default or (100 to 1000 for denoising)
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="deadzone-inter.2Fintra">deadzone-inter/intra</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Set the size of the inter/intra luma quantization deadzone. Deadzones should be in the range of 0 to 32. The deadzone value sets the level of fine detail that x264 will arbitrarily drop without attempting to preserve. Very fine detail is both hard to see and expensive to encode, dropping this detail without attempting to preserve it stops wasting bits on such a low-return section of the video. Deadzone is <a href="http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1031142#post1031142" class="external text" rel="nofollow">incompatible</a> with Trellis.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="cqm">cqm</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Flat (Not Set)</b>
</p><p>Sets all custom quantization matrices to those of a built-in preset. The built-in presets are <tt>flat</tt> or <tt>JVT</tt>.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p><p><b>See also:</b> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#cqmfile" title="X264 Settings">cqmfile</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="cqmfile">cqmfile</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Sets custom quantization matrices from a specified JM-compatible file. Overrides any other <i>--cqm</i>* options.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p><p><b>See also:</b> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#cqm" title="X264 Settings">cqm</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="cqm4.2A_.2F_cqm8.2A">cqm4* / cqm8*</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p>
<ul><li> <i>--cqm4</i>: Set all 4x4 quant matrices. Takes a comma-separated list of 16 integers.
</li><li> <i>--cqm8</i>: Set all 8x8 quant matrices. Takes a comma-separated list of 64 integers.
</li><li> <i>--cqm4i</i>, <i>--cqm4p</i>, <i>--cqm8i</i>, <i>--cqm8p</i>: Set both luma and chroma quant matrices
</li><li> <i>--cqm4iy</i>, <i>--cqm4ic</i>, <i>--cqm4py</i>, <i>--cqm4pc</i>: Set individual quant matrices. Same switches exist for cqm8.
</li></ul>
<p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p>
<h2> <span class="mw-headline" id="Video_Usability_Info">Video Usability Info</span></h2>
<p>These options set a flag in the output stream that can be read by the decoding application and possibly acted on. It's worth noting that most of these options in most scenarios are pointless, and are usually ignored by software decoders.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="overscan">overscan</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: undef</b>
</p><p>How to handle overscan. Overscan is used here in the sense of a device only displaying part of an image.
</p><p>Possible Values:
</p>
<ul><li> undef - Undefined.
</li><li> show - Indicate to show the entire image. Theoretically must be respected if set.
</li><li> crop - Indicate that the image is suitable for playback on devices with overscan. Not necessarily respected.
</li></ul>
<p><b>Recommendation:</b> Crop before encoding and use <b>show</b> if your device supports it, otherwise ignore.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="videoformat">videoformat</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: undef</b>
</p><p>Indicates what the video was before encoding/digitizing.
</p><p>Possible Values:
</p>
<ul><li> component
</li><li> pal
</li><li> ntsc
</li><li> secam
</li><li> mac
</li><li> undef
</li></ul>
<p><b>Recommendation:</b> Whatever your source video was, or undefined.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="range">range</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: auto</b>
</p><p>Indicates whether the output range of luma and chroma levels should be limited or full. If set to TV, the limited ranges will be used. If set to auto, use the same range as input.<br>
<b>NOTE</b>: If range and <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#input-range" title="X264 Settings">input-range</a></code> differ, then a range conversion will occur!
</p><p>See <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YCbCr" class="external text" rel="nofollow">this</a> page for a simple description.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default.
</p><p>See also: <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#input-range" title="X264 Settings">input-range</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="colorprim">colorprim</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: undef</b>
</p><p>Set what color primaries for converting to RGB.
</p><p>Possible Values:
</p>
<ul><li> undef
</li><li> bt709
</li><li> bt470m
</li><li> bt470bg
</li><li> smpte170m
</li><li> smpte240m
</li><li> film
</li></ul>
<p>See: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RGB_color_spaces" class="external text" rel="nofollow">RGB</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YCrCb" class="external text" rel="nofollow">YCrCb</a>
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default, unless you know what your source uses.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="transfer">transfer</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: undef</b>
</p><p>Set the opto-electronic transfer characteristics to use. (Sets the gamma curve to use for correction.)
</p><p>Possible Values
</p>
<ul><li> undef
</li><li> bt709
</li><li> bt470m
</li><li> bt470bg
</li><li> linear
</li><li> log100
</li><li> log316
</li><li> smpte170m
</li><li> smpte240m
</li></ul>
<p>See: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_correction" class="external text" rel="nofollow">Gamma Correction</a>
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default, unless you know what your source uses.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="colormatrix">colormatrix</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: undef</b>
</p><p>Set the matrix coefficients used in deriving the luma and chroma from the RGB primaries.
</p><p>Possible Values
</p>
<ul><li> undef
</li><li> bt709
</li><li> fcc
</li><li> bt470bg
</li><li> smpte170m
</li><li> smpte240m
</li><li> GBR
</li><li> YCgCo
</li></ul>
<p>See: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YCbCr" class="external text" rel="nofollow">YCbCr</a>
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Whatever your sources uses, or default.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="chromaloc">chromaloc</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: 0</b>
</p><p>Sets the chroma sample location. (as defined in Annex E of the <a href="http://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-H.264/en" class="external text" rel="nofollow">ITU-T Specification</a>).
</p><p>Values range from 0 to 5.
</p><p>See <a href="http://git.videolan.org/?p=x264.git;a=blob;f=doc/vui.txt" class="external text" rel="nofollow">x264's vui.txt</a>
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b>
</p>
<ul><li> If you transcode from MPEG1 with proper subsampled 4:2:0, and don't do any color space conversion, you should set this option to 1.
</li><li> If you transcode from MPEG2 with proper subsampled 4:2:0, and don't do any color space conversion, you should set this option to 0.
</li><li> If you transcode from MPEG4 with proper subsampled 4:2:0, and don't do any color space conversion, you should set this option to 0.
</li><li> Otherwise, default.
</li></ul>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="nal-hrd">nal-hrd</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: None</b>
</p><p>Signal HRD information. Required for Blu-ray streams, television broadcast and a few other specialist areas. Acceptable values are:
</p>
<ul><li> <b>none</b> Specify no HRD information
</li><li> <b>vbr</b> Specify HRD information
</li><li> <b>cbr</b> Specify HRD information and pack the bitstream to the bitrate specified by <a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#bitrate">bitrate</a>. Requires <a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#bitrate">bitrate</a> mode ratecontrol.
</li></ul>
<p><b>Recommendation:</b> none, unless you need to signal this information.
</p><p><b>See also:</b> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#vbv-bufsize" title="X264 Settings">vbv-bufsize</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#vbv-maxrate" title="X264 Settings">vbv-maxrate</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#aud" title="X264 Settings">aud</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="pic-struct">pic-struct</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Force sending pic_struct in Picture Timing SEI.
</p><p>Implied when you use <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#pulldown" title="X264 Settings">pulldown</a></code> or <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#tff" title="X264 Settings">tff</a></code>/<code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#bff" title="X264 Settings">bff</a></code>. 
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="crop-rect">crop-rect</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Specify a bitstream-level cropping rectangle. You can use this if you want the decoder to crop on playback, but don't want to crop the video x264 encodes for some reason. Specify the value in pixels that should be cropped on playback.
</p>
<h2> <span class="mw-headline" id="Input.2FOutput">Input/Output</span></h2>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="output">output</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set.</b>
</p><p>Specifies output filename. The extension you specify determines the output format of your video. If the extension is not recognised the default output format is the raw video stream (generally stored with the .264 extension).
</p><p>The special location <tt>NUL</tt> (Windows) or <tt>/dev/null</tt> (Unix) specifies the output should be discarded. This is particularly useful when using <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#pass" title="X264 Settings">pass</a></code> 1, as the only output you care about is that from <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#stats" title="X264 Settings">stats</a></code>.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="muxer">muxer</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: auto</b>
</p><p>Specifies what format to write to.
</p><p>Possible Values
</p>
<ul><li> auto
</li><li> raw
</li><li> mkv
</li><li> flv
</li><li> mp4
</li></ul>
<p>The 'auto' option will pick a muxer based on the supplied output filename.
</p><p>See also: <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#output" title="X264 Settings">output</a></code>
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="demuxer">demuxer</span></h3>
<p><b>Default:</b> Automatically detected.
</p><p>Sets what demuxer and decoder x264 uses for parsing the input video.
</p><p>Possible Values
</p>
<ul><li> auto
</li><li> raw
</li><li> y4m
</li><li> avs
</li><li> lavf
</li><li> ffms
</li></ul>
<p>If the input file has an extension of raw, y4m or avs, x264 will use the relevant demuxer to read the file. Standard input uses the raw demuxer. Otherwise, x264 will attempt to open the file with ffms, then lavf, and then fail.
</p><p>The 'lavf' and 'ffms' options require x264 to be compiled with the respective libraries. If either is used, x264 will carry over the timecodes from the input file, provided you don't output to raw. This effectively makes x264 VFR-aware. The other options can have a constant framerate specified with <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#fps" title="X264 Settings">fps</a></code> or a variable framerate with <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#tcfile-in" title="X264 Settings">tcfile-in</a></code>.
</p><p>See also: <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#input" title="X264 Settings">input</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#muxer" title="X264 Settings">muxer</a></code>
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="input-csp">input-csp</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: i420</b>
</p><p>Tell x264 what colourspace your raw video input is with this switch. Supported colourspaces are listed in <code>x264 --fullhelp</code>.
</p><p><b>See Also: </b> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#input-res" title="X264 Settings">input-res</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#fps" title="X264 Settings">fps</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="output-csp">output-csp</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: i420</b>
</p><p>Tell x264 what colourspace you want out. Supported colourspaces are listed in <code>x264 --fullhelp</code>.
</p><p>Possible Values
</p>
<ul><li> i420
</li><li> i422
</li><li> i444
</li><li> rgb
</li></ul>
<p><b>See Also: </b> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#input-csp" title="X264 Settings">input-csp</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="input-range">input-range</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: auto</b>
</p><p>Indicates the source's range of luma and chroma levels. Can be set to TV for limited ranges or PC for full ranges.<br>
<b>NOTE</b>: If <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#range" title="X264 Settings">range</a></code> and input-range differ, then a range conversion will occur!
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default, unless you know if your source is <b>TV</b> or <b>PC</b> levels.
</p><p>See also: <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#range" title="X264 Settings">range</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="input-res">input-res</span></h3>
<p>Specify the input resolution of raw video input. Use the syntax <code>--input-res 720x576</code>.
</p><p><b>See Also: </b> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#input-csp" title="X264 Settings">input-csp</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#fps" title="X264 Settings">fps</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="index">index</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>An optional setting that only takes effect when using the ffms <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#demuxer" title="X264 Settings">demuxer</a></code>. Specifies a file for ffms to write out indexing data for the input file to, which can be referred to in a future encode to remove the need to reindex the video. Generally not needed -- indexing is not a slow process relative to video encoding.
</p><p>See also: <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#demuxer" title="X264 Settings">demuxer</a></code>, <a href="http://ffmpegsource.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/doc/ffms2-api.html" class="external text" rel="nofollow">FFMS2 API Documentation</a>
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default, unless you want to save a minute amount of time indexing.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="sar">sar</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Specifies the <i>input</i> video's Sample Aspect Ratio (SAR) to be used by the encoder in width:height.
</p><p>This in conjunction with frame dimensions can be used to encode an anamorphic output by determining the Display Aspect Ratio (DAR) via the formula: DAR = SAR x width/height
</p><p><i>See Main Article</i> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_%28image%29#Distinctions" class="external text" rel="nofollow">here</a>
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> You might need to set this if you're using the resize filter and encoding with anamorphic input.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="fps">fps</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: autodetected</b>
</p><p>Specifies video framerate as either a float (29.970) a rational (30000/1001), or an integer (2997/100) <a href="http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/ConvertFPS" class="external text" rel="nofollow">value</a>. x264 detects and uses the framerate from the input stream header when available (y4m, avs, ffms and lavf demuxer), otherwise uses 25. Setting this implies <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#force-cfr" title="X264 Settings">force-cfr</a></code>.
</p><p>If you are using raw YUV input and <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#bitrate" title="X264 Settings">bitrate</a></code>-based ratecontrol, you need to specify the correct framerate using this parameter or <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#tcfile-in" title="X264 Settings">tcfile-in</a></code>. x264 won't hit your target bitrate otherwise.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="seek">seek</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Specifies the first frame to encode, allowing the encode to begin at any point in the source.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="frames">frames</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Specifies the maximum number of frames to encode, allowing the encode to finish at any point before the end of the source.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="level">level</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: -1 (auto)</b>
</p><p>Sets the level flag in the output bitstream (as defined by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264#Levels" class="external text" rel="nofollow">Annex A</a> of the H.264 standard). Permissible levels are:
</p><p><code>1 1b 1.1 1.2 1.3 2 2.1 2.2 3 3.1 3.2 4 4.1 4.2 5 5.1</code>
</p><p>If you do not specify <code>--level</code> on the commandline, x264 will attempt to autodetect the level. This detection is not perfect and may underestimate the level if you are not using VBV. x264 will also automatically limit the DPB size (see <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#ref" title="X264 Settings">ref</a></code>) to remain in compliance with the level you select (unless you <i>also</i> manually specify <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#ref" title="X264 Settings">ref</a></code>).  Note: specifying the level does not automatically set the <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#vbv-maxrate" title="X264 Settings">vbv-maxrate</a></code> or <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#vbv-bufsize" title="X264 Settings">vbv-bufsize</a></code>, however it will warn if the level specific properties are exceeded.
</p><p><b>What Level Do I Pick?</b>
</p><p>Level 4.1 is often considered the highest level you can rely on desktop consumer hardware to support. Blu-ray Discs only support level 4.1, and many non-mobile devices like the Xbox 360 specify level 4.1 as the highest they officially support. Mobile devices like the iPhone/Android are a totally different story.
</p><p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Levels" class="external text" rel="nofollow">Wikipedia has a nice chart</a> detailing the restrictions for each level, if you want to read it.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default, unless you are aiming for a specific device.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="bluray-compat">bluray-compat</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not set</b>
</p><p>Modify x264's options to ensure better compatibility with all Blu-Ray players. Only neccessary if your video will be played by Blu-Ray hardware players.
</p><p>This setting makes some option changes:
</p>
<ul><li> Cap <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#weightp" title="X264 Settings">weightp</a></code> at 1
</li><li> Set <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#min-keyint" title="X264 Settings">min-keyint</a></code> to 1
</li><li> Disable <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#intra-refresh" title="X264 Settings">intra-refresh</a></code>
</li><li> etc...
</li></ul>
<p>It also enables some internal x264 hacks to produce more hardware-player-friendly streams. For example:
</p>
<ul><li> GOP/mini-GOP tweaks to size and reference lists.
</li><li> More verbose slice headers
</li></ul>
<p><b>Recommendation:</b> Set if you're encoding for hardware Blu-Ray players.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="verbose">verbose</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Displays statistics for each encoded frame.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="no-progress">no-progress</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Disables the progress indicator while encoding.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="quiet">quiet</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Enables Quiet Mode, silencing status messages from x264.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="log-level">log-level</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: info</b>
</p><p>Manually specify the logging level of both x264cli and libx264.
</p><p>Possible Values 
</p>
<ul><li> none
</li><li> error
</li><li> warning
</li><li> info
</li><li> debug
</li></ul>
<p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="psnr">psnr</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Enables <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_signal-to-noise_ratio" class="external text" rel="nofollow">PSNR</a> calculations that are reported on completion at the cost of a small decrease in speed.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="ssim">ssim</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Enables <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSIM" class="external text" rel="nofollow">SSIM</a> calculations that are reported on completion at the cost of a small decrease in speed.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="threads">threads</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: auto</b> (frame based threads: 1.5 * logical processors, rounded down; slice based threads: 1 * logical processors)
</p><p>Enables parallel encoding by using more than 1 thread to increase speed on multi-core systems. The quality loss from multiple threads is mostly negligible unless using very high numbers of threads (say, above 16). The speed gain should be slightly less than linear until you start using more than 1 thread per 40px of vertical video, at which point the gain from additional threads sharply decreases.
</p><p>x264 currently has an internal limit on the number of threads set at <b>128</b>, realistically you should never set it this high.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p><p><b>See also:</b> <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#sliced-threads" title="X264 Settings">sliced-threads</a></code>, <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#thread-input" title="X264 Settings">thread-input</a></code>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="sliced-threads">sliced-threads</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: off</b>
</p><p>Enables slice-based threading. This threading method produces lower quality results than the default method both compression and efficiency-wise, but adds no encoding latency.
</p><p>The maximum number of sliced threads is MIN( (height+15)/16 / 4, 128 )
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default (off), unless you are doing some sort of realtime streaming or low latency is important.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="thread-input">thread-input</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Set if threads &gt; 1.</b>
</p><p>Decodes the input video in a separate thread to the encoding process.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="sync-lookahead">sync-lookahead</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: auto</b> (<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#bframes"><tt>bframes</tt></a>+1)
</p><p>Sets the number of frames to be used as a buffer for threaded lookahead. Maximum Value is <b>250</b>. Automatically disabled during the 2nd or greater pass or when using sliced threads.
</p><p>Setting this to <b>0</b> disables threaded lookahead, which allows lower latency at the cost of reduced performance.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="non-deterministic">non-deterministic</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Slightly improve quality when encoding with <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#threads" title="X264 Settings">threads</a></code> &gt; 1, at the cost of non-deterministic output encodes. This enables multi-threaded mv and uses the entire lookahead buffer in slicetype decisions when slicetype is threaded -- rather than just the minimum amount known to be available.
</p><p>Not for general use.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p><p><b>See also:</b> <a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#threads">threads</a>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="asm">asm</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: auto</b>
</p><p>Override automatic CPU detection. Useful for debugging or troubleshooting.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="no-asm">no-asm</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Disables all CPU optimisations. Useful for debugging or troubleshooting.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="visualize">visualize</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Enables Macroblock Type visualizations over the encoded video. Useful for frame by frame debugging or analysis.
</p><p>Requires compile time support, and an X11 windowing system.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="dump-yuv">dump-yuv</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Dumps the reconstructed YUV frames to the specified file. Useful mostly for debugging. Not for general use.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="sps-id">sps-id</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Set SPS (sequence parameter set) and PPS (picture parameter set) id numbers. Not for general use.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="aud">aud</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Use access unit delimiters.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default, unless encoding for Blu-ray, in which case set this option.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="force-cfr">force-cfr</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>If using ffms2 or lavf demuxers, timecodes are copied from the input file, provided the output file is not raw. This option disables this, and forces x264 to generate its own. When using this you probably also want to set <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#fps" title="X264 Settings">fps</a></code>.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="tcfile-in">tcfile-in</span></h3>
<p>Specify a timecodes file which should be used to interpret the framerate of the input video. The timecode file can be in either v1 or v2 format <a href="http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/doc/mkvmerge.html#mkvmerge.external_timecode_files" class="external text" rel="nofollow">which are described in the mkvmerge documentation</a>.
</p><p><b>See Also:</b> <a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#tcfile-out"><tt>tcfile-out</tt></a>, <a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#force-cfr"><tt>force-cfr</tt></a>, <a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#fps"><tt>fps</tt></a>
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="tcfile-out">tcfile-out</span></h3>
<p>Output a timecode file (v2 format) based on the input timestamps. For use when you're encoding a VFR input video and want to dump the timecodes. For details on the file format, see <a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#tcfile-in"><tt>tcfile-in</tt></a>.
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="timebase">timebase</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>Allows you to set a custom timebase.
</p><p>The numerator is 'seconds', and the denominator is 'ticks'. Means how many seconds one tick takes.
</p>
<ul><li> If passed a rational, it will set the numerator and denominator accordingly.
</li><li> If passed an integer, and an input timecodes file is set via <a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#tcfile-in"><tt>tcfile-in</tt></a>, it will use the value passed as the numerator, and generate the denominator accordingly.
</li><li> If passed an integer, and no input timecodes file is set, it will use the value passed as the denominator and generate the 'ticks per frame' from the input video.
</li></ul>
<p>Not compatible with <code>--<a href="http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#force-cfr" title="X264 Settings">force-cfr</a></code> mode.
</p><p><b>Recommendation:</b> Default
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="dts-compress">dts-compress</span></h3>
<p><b>Default: Not Set</b>
</p><p>A hack, implemented for FLV and MP4 containers only, that can work around buggy decoders that expect all DTSs to be positive. As per the commit message for this change, <a href="http://git.videolan.org/gitweb.cgi/x264.git/?a=commit;h=80d0bd4b57163389289714e681bdc53ceaaf0f7a" class="external text" rel="nofollow">use at your own risk</a>.
</p><p>Note: DTS refers to <b>D</b>ecode <b>T</b>ime<b>S</b>tamp. Each frame is allocated a DTS that reflects its position in the 'coded order' of the stream, as opposed to the 'display order' of the stream, which is specified by the <b>P</b>resentation <b>T</b>ime<b>S</b>tamp. The order frames are stored in the stream is different to the order they are displayed due to compression techniques such as B-frames, which result in frames requiring data from frames that will be displayed after.
</p>
<h1> <span class="mw-headline" id="Filtering">Filtering</span></h1>
<h2> <span class="mw-headline" id="video-filter">video-filter</span></h2>
<p>The x264 filtering system is used to process the input video before encoding. Multiple filters can also be applied sequentially to the input video.
</p><p>The basic syntax to apply a filter is this:
</p>
<pre>--video-filter &lt;filter&gt;
</pre>
<p>You can apply multiple filters sequentially by delimiting them with a <code>/</code>:
</p>
<pre>--video-filter &lt;filter1&gt;/&lt;filter2&gt;
</pre>
<p>You can 'chain' as many filter operations as you like together.
</p><p>The available filters are:
</p>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="crop">crop</span></h3>
<p>Syntax: <code>crop:left,top,right,bottom</code>
</p><p>Remove pixels from the edges of the frame.
</p>
<ul><li> You must crop <i>height</i> in multiples of 4 when using yv12<b>i</b>, i420<b>i</b>, or nv12<b>i</b> format video input
</li><li> You must crop <i>height</i> in multiples of 2 when using yv12<b>p</b>, i420<b>p</b>, nv12<b>p</b>, or any other interlaced format video input not specified above.
</li><li> You must crop <i>width</i> in multiples of 2 when using i420, i422, yv12, yv16, nv12, or nv16 format video input.
</li></ul>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="resize">resize</span></h3>
<p>Syntax: <code>resize:[width,height][,sar][,fittobox][,csp][,method]</code>
</p><p>Resizes frames and/or converts frames between different colorspaces.
Requires x264 to be compiled with <i>libswscale</i>.
</p><p>There are a few possible modes on how to resize frames:
</p>
<ul><li> Resolution only: Resizes frames to the specified resolution and changes the SAR to avoid stretching.
</li><li> SAR only: Sets the SAR and resizes frames to a new resolution to avoid stretching.
</li><li> Resolution + SAR: Resizes frames to the specified resolution and sets SAR to the specified value, potentially allowing stretching.
</li><li> Fittobox: Resizes frames based on the specified constraint mode, adapting the resolution to have a resultant SAR of 1:1
</li></ul>
<dl><dd><ul><li> width: Resize frames to fit within the specified width constraint
</li><li> height: Resize frames to fit within the specified height constraint
</li><li> both: Resize frames to fit within the specified box constraint
</li></ul>
</dd></dl>
<ul><li> Fittobox + SAR: Same as regular Fittobox mode except the resultant frames have the specified SAR, shrinking the video to where the anamorphic video fits within the specified constraint.
</li></ul>
<p>Options that are independent of the resizing mode are
</p>
<ul><li> csp: simultaneously converting frames to the specified colorspace. The valid list of colorspaces are displayed in x264 --fullhelp
</li><li> method (Default <b>bicubic</b>): when resizing frames, use the specified resizer method
</li></ul>
<dl><dd><code>fastbilinear, bilinear, bicubic, experimental, point, area, bicublin, gauss, sinc, lanczos, spline</code>
</dd></dl>
<p>Example:
</p>
<pre>resize:width=1280,height=720,method=spline
</pre>
<h3> <span class="mw-headline" id="select_every">select_every</span></h3>
<p>Syntax: <code>select_every:step,offset1[,offset2,...]</code>
</p><p>"Select" only a subset of input frames to encode, dropping the rest. Every <code>step</code> frames, take only the frames specified with an offset. For example:
To encode every second frame:
</p>
<pre>select_every:2,1
</pre>
<p>To drop every third frame:
</p>
<pre>select_every:3,0,1
</pre>
<p>You can see <a href="http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Select#SelectEvery" class="external text" rel="nofollow">more examples</a> at the Avisynth wiki (which has an identical filter).
</p>
<h1> <span class="mw-headline" id="See_Also">See Also</span></h1>
<ul><li> <a href="http://git.videolan.org/?p=x264.git;a=tree;f=doc;hb=HEAD" class="external text" rel="nofollow">All documentation included in the x264 source tree</a>. Mostly high level technical explanations of features. Some of the documentation is quite old but it's still accurate.
</li><li> <a href="http://sites.google.com/site/linuxencoding/" class="external text" rel="nofollow">Linux Encoding - x264 encoding options guide</a>. Very applicable to x264 options. Mostly written by x264 developer Dark Shikari.
</li><li> <a href="http://mulder.dummwiedeutsch.de/pub/x264" class="external text" rel="nofollow">Lord Mulder's x264 in Avidemux guide</a>. Written by <a href="http://forum.doom9.org/member.php?u=78667" class="external text" rel="nofollow">this guy</a>. If you don't mind incredible verboseness and a <i>lot</i> of <i>text</i> written like <i>this</i> it's worth a look.
</li><li> <a href="http://sites.google.com/site/x264bluray/home" class="external text" rel="nofollow">Blu-Ray encoding with x264</a>. Fully worked examples, great use.
</li></ul>

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